This invention relates to sheet splicers and particularly to splices which are adapted to act as butt splices for sheets of paper or film or rolls thereof. The splicer according to this invention is particularly adapted to joining paper in a paper press with a new roll of paper so that the press can continue to print while the paper web is supplied to the press after the old and new webs have been joined together.
Butt splicers have not been utilized heretofore in rotary web press orientations. It is for this environment that the sheet butt splicer in accordance with the present invention is particularly adapted.
However, other devices have been devised to clamp two sheets together and to cut them and tape the splice. Those tape splicers have for instance been used for taping together magnetic tape and the like. In general the mechanism in accordance with the present invention is suitable for both applications. But it is particularly adapted to join sheets together to form a continuous roll web of the old and new paper supplies of a rotary web printing apparatus.
In accordance with my invention I have provided a new sheet butt splicer having a splicing table and a clamping structure for clamping sheets to be spliced to the table. A splicer blade cutter is drawn across the sheet to be spliced to cut and define the butt splice edges for each sheet to be spliced together. A tape applicator is provided for taping the butt edge splices together where each meets. The selvage edges of the plies are stripped away before the tape is applied. A tape trimmer is provided for trimming the edges of the butt splice so that the tape is trimmed off along the edges of the spliced paper.